Health and Wellness

Is flu season over yet? Just when you think spring has arrived, and you are out of the woods, it hits you. Like that last winter weather event, just after you took off the snow tires.

At this time of year, it's a matter of recharging the batteries, gearing up for spring. Can't wait for the warmer, friendlier weather, and the sense of purpose and energy that comes with it. I've been busy with a lot of editorial work so far this year. For some reason, most of it has been health related.

Yes, I am fine, thank you. Doing well. But this kind of work can make you start self-diagnosing.

So here's my recent medical history, illustration-wise.

Learning to Say No to Dialysis, written by Paula Span for the New York Times Science section. Art director Audrey Razgaitis and Cathy Gilmore Barnes.

Becoming Bionic, for the Robb Report, about advances in transplant technology. Art director Lisa Lewis.

 

Remembering Mom - a woman reflects on the legacy of her mother after her passing. For Texas Co-op Monthly, art director Jane Sharpe.

 And lastly, here's a full-page illustration for Reader's Digest Canada. It's a testimonial of a woman who endured two years of a debilitating spinal condition, suffering misdiagnosis, confusion and then a full resolution of her health problems. Not really my kind of story, but my Mom was totally impressed by seeing this published.

Gesundheit!

Medical Op-Ed

Every week, it seems, biopharmaceutical companies announce new breakthroughs in “personalized medicine” – customized health care where the goal is to tailor drug therapies to individuals. Competition between gene sequencing businesses to catapult us into the age of the $1000 genome drives much of the hoopla. Gene-based companion diagnostics, for cancer drugs especially, promise to help doctors discern which patients are likeliest to benefit from which treatments, curtailing the need for mix-and-match, trial-and-error, one-size-fits-all chemotherapies.

But what if every new drug – however much more effective than current treatments – works only for smaller and smaller numbers of patients? And what happens to those minimally beneficial but mega-profitable blockbusters that now dominate cancer treatment when it becomes clearer that only small percentages of the people taking them will truly benefit, people who now can be identified prospectively?

The Cure for Some Could Cost Us All - by Barry Werth

Interesting topic - I was given the chance to work with a half-page layout by art director Heather Hopp-Bruce for the Boston Globe Op-Ed page.. It's a complicated, modern issue, tied to human genomes, customization, medicine and economics. It was a challenge to dive in and cover the topic in a nuanced manner. Miracle cure or another burdensome expense for consumers to carry? Here is a detail:

Here is the page layout:

 I worked on a number of concepts, here some of my other sketches: